Some Aspects of the Geology and Environmental Impact Assessment of a Proposed Gold Mining Site X in Borgu Local Government Area of Niger State, Nigeria

Proposed Gold mining Site X is located on Nigerian basement rocks in the Borgu Local Government Area of Niger State. The geology and geochemistry of the rock formations in a mining site contribute significantly to understanding the economics of the mineral deposits and the impacts on the environment, particularly the surface and groundwater viz-a-viz the health of the community inhabitants, soil, vegetation and other salient parameters, including weather conditions and socio-economy of the people. The geology and geochemistry of rock units, soils, stream sediments and water of Site X indicate rich deposits of Gold attractive for exploitation, concentrated in three delineated portions of the site as “Concentrates” A, B, C. With these results and impending mining of the gold deposits, some aspects of the environmental impact of mining the gold resources have been studied and reported herein. This is to ensure successful mining operations with minimum negative impacts on the surrounding environment when the applicant mining company obtains a mining lease from the Mining Cadastre Office. The lessons to learn are that a successful economic development depends on rational use of natural resources and on reducing as far as possible the adverse environmental and social impacts of developmental projects

On the use of electrical resistivity method in mapping potential sources and extent of pollution of groundwater systems in Lapai Town, Niger State, Nigeria

Electrical resistivity method employing the Schlumberger array was used to occupy forty four (44) vertical electrical sounding points in Lapai town with the aim of determining the depth to aquifers, aquifer thicknesses and aquifer protective capacity. The G41 Geotron resistivity meter was used in obtaining the apparent resistivity data which was processed using Interpex 1XD resistivity interpretation software. The results revealed four lithologic sections which include top lateritic soil, sandy clay, fractured basement and fresh basement. Both confined and unconfined aquifers were identified within the area, with four classes of aquifer proactive capacities as high, moderate, weak and poor. While the aquifer at VES 20 was highly protected, twenty other aquifers were moderately protected, eight others had weak protection and fifteen aquifers were poorly protected. The aquifers were generally of good thicknesses and at varying reasonable depths, making them good reservoirs of water in appreciable quantity. The average aquifer thickness was estimated to be 48.36m while the average depth to aquifers was estimated to be 56.68m

Connected Learning Initiative: A Novel Tool for Teacher Capacity Development in Nigeria

All three tiers of education in Nigeria (primary, secondary, tertiary) lay emphasis on STEM subjects. The methods and strategies employed by STEM teachers in most Nigerian schools have remained teacher-centred and textbook-oriented. This paper has brought together some elements of the innovation achieved in the Connected Learning Initiative (CLIx) to address the identified challenges in STEM education in Nigerian junior secondary schools through the CL4STEM project to build processes for long-term systemic dialogues and networking. CLIx was seeded by the Tata Trusts and led by TISS and MIT, USA, to strengthen secondary STEM learning, pedagogic content knowledge of teachers and their practice at scale in four states in India.  The programme’s interactive STEM OERs, subject teacher CoPs on mobile devices, tech design for under-resourced context, participatory and localised ecosystem approach to adoption and scaling, are identified as innovative and scalable models. Data were collected in three phases, baseline, midline, and endline. The findings from interviews indicate that teachers' understanding of CL4STEM innovation seem to improve from baseline to endline.At the baseline 2 teachers were still learning how to effectively navigate CL4STEM modules and Telegram group (CoPs) while none was at the endline. There is an increase in the number of teachers exploring ways of improving CL4STEM teaching strategies through further refinement of the modules and CoP participation and/or alternative ways of achieving better results from 1 at midline to 5 at endline. There is a decrease in the number of teachers that are exploring ways of collaboration with other teachers and educators to help impact student learning using CL4STEM teaching strategies from 11 at the midline to 3 at the endline. Other changes from baseline through midline to endline, generally positively, with respect to perception, voluntariness, relative advantage, compatibility, image, ease of use, research demonstrability, and visibility have been recorded here-in

The Nigerian Petroleum Industry Act, Frontier Basins Exploration and the Global Energy Transition

The Nigerian Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) passed into Law in 2021 has the major goal to reform the Nigerian petroleum sector operations into policy, regulations and business (commercial). In the line of this, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was transformed to NNPC Ltd to operate entirely commercially with a supervising Board and registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission. Such a commercial mandate will entail the need to explore and produce more oil and gas for export and domestic utilization. Oil is becoming less attractive as an energy source but gas is gaining momentum as a clean energy source in the global energy transition road-map. The global energy transition road-map is drawn around clean, alternative and renewable energies. The Nigerian frontier basins have recently come on board as new business opportunities with huge petroleum gas resources. These frontier basins comprise the Anambra, Benue, Bida, Chad (Nigerian sector), Dahomey, and Sokoto Basins as well as the Deep and Ultra-deep offshore. Maturing these basins through data generation and production of the gas resources therein will promote the nation’s gas utilization and gas expansion programmes meant to promote industrialization and huge employment generation, grow the economy and engender positive social transformation. The clause in the PIA that promotes frontier exploration is well-thought out. Available and required geological data needed to mature the frontier basins to producing basins are presented in this paper. The success made in Kolmani River-2 well discovery is a case study